Today is release day for Tales From the Lyon’s Den (Lyon’s Den for short from here on). Nineteen authors, eighteen stories (for those doing the math, yes, there was one collaboration in the anthology), over one hundred and sixty thousand words (most novels are about a hundred thousand or so, so this is a thick book). This is my second anthology in the Four Horsemen Universe (4HU for short from here on). And to everyone who will wonder, no, I have not stopped writing in my own universes. However, this was a fun gig, a great universe to write in, and I couldn’t resist. I also know a lot of the authors in this volume, either personally, having met them at cons or workshops, or by reputation. All are what I would consider very skilled at their craft, capable of writing very interesting stories. I don’t consider myself a great literary writer. I write good entertainment, good enough that a lot of people buy and enjoy it. But we have some future stars in this lineup.

Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey have created a monster of a series. Lots of books, lots of authors, a huge central story arc and a bunch of side stories. A great series to get into as it is large and growing and promises to provide a lot of great reading for the military science fiction fan. They could have done well by themselves, but instead they opened the universe up to other authors such as Kacey Ezell and Kevin Ikenberry. And myself. And they opened it up to even more with the anthologies. It was a win-win. Chris and Mark gained new stories and the possible attention of other fan bases, while anthology authors were able to get their names out there to a new audience. The 4HU is a great thing in my opinion, opening up a whole new universe to explore and a great group of authors to sample. I recommend, if you haven’t read the 4HU, to go out and get this anthology, and then start getting the novels, including, ahem, the one I will talk about in a bit. If you have already read a book or two in the universe, or all of them, what in the hell are you waiting for. Go out and get Lyon’s Den, right now. Until you do, I will be sending psionic waves your way, forcing you to do my will. You have been warned.

In other news from the 4HU, there is a card game in the works, along with a Kickstarter campaign. The Omega War 4HU card game needs your help, troop. So, if you want this project to succeed, get on over there and plop down your credits. I had been remiss in doing so, and just gave them a few of my hard earned bucks.

When Eagles Dare Cover.

I will not be talking about my other projects on this blog. Just know that there are bunch of them, including books in several of my series, and some new stuff. But the one I want to talk about here is. When Eagles Dare, my novel entry into the 4HU will be out next month. I am exciting to be finally getting my foot in the door in this successful franchise with this novel. Those who have read my story, With The Eagles, from the anthology For a Few Credits More, will recognize many of the characters. And I introduce a new mercenary race, as well as some original aliens. I think fans of mine will like this novel. No, it isn’t Exodus: Empires at War, but it has the same gritty action and combat as those books. I would appreciate it if you would saunter on over to Amazon on release day and pick this one up. Coming in October.

Next up: My Adventures in Self-Publishing. What I have done right, What I have done wrong, What I am experimenting with now. I think this will be of interest to people who are already self-published or currently trying to make it.

Avalaible on Amazon.US and Amazon.UK. as well as all the other iterations of Amazon out there.

This fantasy novel was just released last night on Amazon, and is now available world wide. It definitely has a military slant to it, and I typify it as Military Fantasy, a term I had heard didn’t exist at a DragonCon panel three years ago. Readers who like the Refuge series will love this book. I believe that even the die hard military scifi fans of Exodus will love it. It definitely isn’t fairies and unicorns. The battles are dirty and intense and much like my space opera ground battles, only different.

Now I know that the rabid Exodus fans will be complaining that I’m putting something out that is not Exodus, lol. Sorry, but many more Exodus books will be coming out, probably another at the end of September. And this book, in its original iteration at least, was written many years ago. So, I’ll tell you the story behind this novel.

Back in 2004, or was it 2005, I wrote a fantasy called The Chronical of Connor McMenamin. I showed it to several friends who were big time writers, and was told I wouldn’t have any problem selling it. Well, I sent it out to the three publishers who at the time were accepting unsolicited manuscripts and received form rejections. Unfortunately my friends weren’t aquisition editiors. Book 1 was the first part of a trilogy. When I started self-publishing I decided to not put it out, since I didn’t have time for another series. Fast forward seven years or so, and I decided to revisit the idea, only twenty years earlier in the series and with another cast of characters. And so this book was born, starring Connor’s father, King Rory. I did thorough research on the people of the ancient world, and came up with a jumble of groups and their ancient gods. I noted that most peoples of the ancient world were eventually conquered and absorbed into some other group. I didn’t want this in my world, so I came up with the idea that the Gods protected their own. Wars were possible, fringe lands could change hands, but the core lands were jealously guarded by their deities, who had more power on their home territories than any invaders. The other idea was that gods gained their power from their worshippers. Not a new idea at all, dating back to the days of the pulps, in fact. The third idea was that of the Walking Gods, former deities who had fallen from heaven when they lost most of their worshippers. Super beings, greater than human, with some of the divine in them still. But mortal, capable of dying. The novel came to about ninety-five thousand words. I started self-publishing with other works and never had time to send it out, and again, didn’t want yet another series until I was finished with some that were already out.

I brought a couple of chapters of The Lich’s Horde to a workshop, where it was critiqued and commented on by a big time editor with a major company, as well as a major award winning writer. The editor liked it, but had some problems with the mixed mythology and some of the formatting. Now, I learned to write by reading other writers, and didn’t have all the Chicago Manual of Style rules down. So I bought the manual and started learning. The funny thing is that even following those rules exactly has led to some arguments with other professionals. Go figure. It’s a no-win situation. I went in and changed a lot of the background, cleaning it up. I also talked with a big time agent at the workshop, and thought that I had nailed down someone who had represented a bunch of best selling authors. As soon as I had the novel cleaned up, and brought it to under ninety thousand words, cutting unmercifully at the agent’s recommendation. I finally got it off to her and waited. And waited. Four months after I sent it off I pinged her, and was told that she didn’t have the copy I had sent her. The copy she had acknowledged receipt of when I sent it. I sent her another copy and waited, and waited, and pinged again, three months later. She replied that she had read it several times and just couldn’t get into it. Which meant she would not represent the book. Funny thing about agents. If they don’t love it, they won’t try to sell it. Try doing that in retail and see how long you last.

I had also seen the editor several times over the last eighteen months, and he hadn’t asked about the novel. Even when I mentioned it he didn’t express any interest. At the workshop he had said that he wanted to see it first before any other house. Now, no interest, zilch. So I decided I didn’t want to have to wait the year to year and a half to get this published if I sent it to their slush pile. And possibly receive a rejection letter after waiting a year. I already have a traditionally published book coming out that the publisher and his editor love. I mean love. The editors comments are that she loves this scene, that scene, the other scene. They love it so much so that we are going to do a third book, beyond the two book contract. I have given up on the other publisher, the one I had always dreamed of doing a book for. As another successful independent author friend has said, they know where I am if they want to talk. I no longer have the time or energy to pursue them.

The story? A Death God kills the worshippers of his brother, the Sky God, and gains power. The Sky God falls to earth and becomes a Walking God. The nomads under the control of the Death God go on a campaign to conquer other lands, other peoples, and throw other Gods to Earth. With the power of their evil deity behind them they are able to conquer the cores of other lands and depose their gods. The Walking God travels to the lands of a king who hates his gods for allowing his wife to die in childbirth. The same king, Rory McMenamin, that the last wizards in the Western world are traveling to see to seek refuge. Because divine magic users, read that as priests, hate the idea that someone else, read that wizards, could actually control as muc power as they do.

The setting is not the traditional high fantasy world, where the armor that great great granddad wore in the same as the current characters are using. Things have progressed, and most are at a Renaissance era of technology. The book is full of action, huge battles, pikes and muskets, cannon and knights, verses nomad horsemen and an undead army they have raised from the fallen of the lands they have conquered. I went over it, added in twelve thousand more words (thanks, big time agent, for asking me to shorten it to a point where it didn’t meet my requirements for a published novel.). In reading it, while doing the rewrite, it was like I was reading a new work, and frankly it excited me. So, if you like hard and gritty fantasy, no unicorns or faeries, but definitely some demons and a lot of gross ass zombies, this might be the book to you.

I’m heading to DragonCon tomorrow. This could well be my last one, since the crowds are wearing on me, it’s expensive, and quite frankly the expense is not advancing my career as I had hoped. I can only get a couple of panels a year. I understand. They spend big bucks on big name guests and they have to get them in front of the fans. But two panels is just not enough. I could possibly do two smaller cons next year that would offer more exposure. But I am going this time, and will have after action reports to blog about in the coming month.

Currently the book is listed on Amazon.UK as Low Fantasy. I don’t even know what in the hell that is.

After a lot of work, and taking longer than I wanted, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation is out and available on Amazon.US and Amazon.UK among others. The war is really heating up, with the New Terran Empire and its allies beating back the latest Ca’cadasan offensive and going on the counter attack. And Sean, the Emperor, has ordered an audacious plan to take off the head of the Ca’cadasan Empire. Currently I am working on Refuge: Book 5, and expect to have it out around Christmas, possible before, more probably right after. Next will probably be the next book in the second Deep Dark Well Trilogy, Theocracy 2.

The first book of the Kinship War series, on contract from Arc Manor, is on track to be turned in prior to the required date. After that, except for the second book of the Kinship War series, my plans aren’t set for 2018. I will most probably continue the Exodus series, both Empires and War and Machine War, hopefully to completion. When I have wrapped those up, I will write some novels set in the beginning of the Empire and work through the history.

And, I am involved in the Lost Signals Anthology of three times Nebula Award Nominee Charles (Chuck) Gannon, whose Terran Republic series is the impetus for the anthology. There is a Kickstarter for the project, which has passed the initial and first stretch goals. I will be contributing an action filled short story to the anthology. And tomorrow, Tuesday, December 5, 2017, I will be the chat guest on the Facebook page, and there may be some giveaways. The Kickstarter page is here.

And now, an excerpt from Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation:

“We’ve got the first formation coming through the center,” said Grand Fleet Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski, his holographic image looking around the table. The wrinkles on his face were even deeper than usual, indicating his heightened concern. “Twelve thousand ships, by our best estimate. Designated Alpha.”

The huge holo of the front floated over the conference table, the force in question highlighted in red, a vector arrow showing its projected path, straight into one of the major base systems of that region, Saures.

“We have contact with two other forces, designated Bravo and Charlie. Both are approximately the same size as Alpha, and from the projections they appear to be looping around, on a course to come in around Saures and cut it off. My staff think they are trying to force a major engagement in that system. I would like to bring them to battle in normal space before they reach their target. Unfortunately, they don’t have to drop down into any of the systems along the way.”

“Do you think you can take them in hyper?” asked Grand Fleet Admiral the Duke Taelis Mgonda, his own image frowning as he studied the holo.

Sean kicked back in his chair, one of the few corporeal beings actually in the conference room, along with Vice Admiral Mary Innocent, his staff intelligence officer, and Admiral Ekaterina Sergiov, the director of Combined Intelligence. Several of the grand fleet admirals’ staff were also in attendance by holo, along with Grand High Admiral Sondra McCullom, the Chief of Naval Operations, Grand Marshal Mishori Yamakuri, the Imperial Army Chief of Staff, and Field Marshal Betty Parker, the Commandant of the Imperial Marine Corps.

It still amazed him that they were having a real-time conference when some of the attendees were thousands of light years away from each other. Prior to the deployment of so many wormholes, the only way they would have been able to keep in touch would have been through couriers, at least to those places that weren’t connected by hyper-link, which still took over a week to reach from the capital of the Empire to the frontier. The old way worked, after a fashion, in that orders and assessments could be passed. Always far behind the real-time events. Assessments would come in too late for anything to be done about them, orders would go out to commanders no longer facing the situation those orders were meant to deal with. No, they could almost control the action at the front, though Imperial doctrine still called for the man or woman on the spot to make the determination and give the orders.

“Oh, we can take them, alright,” said Len with a tight smile. “Especially if we move our ships around through our mobile gates. It’s just that we have a much better power ratio against them in normal space.”

The Emperor had to agree with that assessment. Many of his ships were still hyper VI, able to move at a pseudospeed of just above ten thousand lights. Unfortunately, all of the Caca vessels were the more advanced hyper VII, able to get up to over forty thousand lights, four times that of VI. The Empire was no longer building hyper VI craft. Everything being laid down or coming out of the building slips was hyper VII standard now, but there had been a lot of hyper VI vessels in the fleet at the beginning of the war. In fact, over ninety-five percent of the warships in the Imperial order of battle had been VI, the VIIs restricted to some battle cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers used for scouting. Many of those older ships had been destroyed, but many had also survived, and were no longer able to keep up with the predominantly VII forces. Those ships were best used for system defense, or taking systems, though the wormholes and multi-purpose missiles still allowed them to strike at ships in the higher dimensions. Also, inertialess and warp fighters couldn’t operate in hyper, and so were more or less useless between systems.

But the hyper VII ships that had wormholes were more than a match for their Caca opponents. The two problems they had were that the Cacas now had wormholes of their own. Not in the numbers the Empire deployed, thank God, but enough to become a worry. And the gates that allowed the Imperial ships to move from place to place as fast as their ships could get through the portals didn’t allow other wormholes through. So, though they could send thousands of ships to reinforce threatened areas, the wormholes that made them so effective couldn’t go with them.

“They obviously aren’t going to give us that advantage until they hit Saures,” said Mgonda, shaking his head, then reaching off the holo for something, his hand disappearing for a moment before returning with a mug of some liquid.

The other grand fleet admiral was in his dress uniform, unlike Len, who liked to wear casual shipboard clothing even when in high level meetings, if he wasn’t really there. The duke had a broad face and nose, dark eyes looking out from under bushy eyebrows. Mgonda liked to say his family was descended from the Zulu tribe of South Africa on Earth. From what Sean had seen in the records, his face did resemble those of the fierce warriors. Which proved nothing, with all the genetic mixing that had gone on in the Empire.

Sean reached for his own cup, only to discover that it was empty. He nodded for his steward to bring him a fresh cup, then looked back at his admirals.

“I think we need to hit them with everything we have on the way in,” said Sean, looking from grand fleet admiral to grand fleet admiral to grand high admiral. “Hit and run, with our fastest wormhole equipped ships. And everything we have that can’t catch them or run from them will be waiting for them in Saures.”

“Sounds good, your Majesty,” said McCullom, looking at the deployments as they appeared on the holo. “But what if that’s not all they have?”

Sean scratched his nose for a moment, thinking. What if they had something else coming forward, and hit him someplace they weren’t ready. Lenkowski had a fleet of over forty thousand ships, Imperial, Crakista and Elysium. Eight thousand capital ships, while the Cacas probably had a similar number in their fleet. Mgonda had thirty thousand ships in his fleet, still in the process of taking back the Fenri systems and ejecting the last of the Caca vessels in that region. He also had Elysium ships in his force, but the majority of his vessels were Imperial. There was a fleet of twenty thousand ships in the Republic, mostly the vessels of that nation, along with Crakista allies.

And far back behind the lines, in five base systems three hundred light years back, were the ships he was hiding from the enemy. Another fifty thousand vessels. They could be committed to action if necessary, but they were there to provide the nucleus of the promised offensive he was going to spring on the Cacas. The offensive he had promised his people and Parliament for over a year. If they were committed to action, the offensive might be delayed by a year or more while ships were repaired and missiles were replenished.

“Might I suggest, your Majesty,” said Mgonda, setting down his mug and reaching for a cigar. “I think we can wrap up this business in Fenri in a week or less. Then I can move my fleet in on a vector that cuts the Cacas off from their logistics.”

“They’ll still have their wormholes,” cautioned McCullom. “We won’t be able to completely cut them off from their support.”

“But the duke has a point,” said Sean, looking into the dark eyes of the admiral as he puffed on his cigar. Sean hated the habit of smoking, but as long as the duke was blowing his smoke two thousand lights years from his nose it didn’t bother him. “They don’t have that many wormholes, and any they have to use as gates are wormholes they won’t be able to use for other things. I think that’s an excellent idea, Duke Taelis. Now, if we could get President Graham to commit the Republic to come in on the other flank.”

“I doubt that she would be willing, your Majesty,” said the CNO, shaking her head. “She’s still terrified that the Cacas will be coming back.”

I woke up on Sunday morning and packed, then went down for breakfast in the little restaurant at the Hilton. Got into a conversation with the waitress who had a friend who wanted to become a writer, and was supposed to be there for breakfast. I waited a little while, but he didn’t show, so I started on my day. First, I wanted to get a look at the strip in the daylight. I was thinking it would be dead on a Sunday morning, but I should have known that Gomora never sleeps. Still got some very good pictures of the tackiest place on Earth. Luxor, New York New York, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Caesar’s Palace. Circus Circus. All the famous names, including Trump and the tallest building in town, the Stratosphere Tower. There were people everywhere, and I guess gamblers got to gamble as long as they have any money. I was able to stop at a couple of places to get pictures, but I took most of them from my car. There were some angry horns behind me when I took my time at a light to get a good shot. I didn’t really care. I was in a rental car, they didn’t know who I was, and I was gone before anyone could get out of their cars. Got some great pictures. Next time I will go into some of the casinos, possibly see some shows, but I’m not one to throw away money on games of chance that favor the house.

Stratosphere Tower.

I had decided to go to the Valley of Fire State Park after driving through the center of Sin City. I didn’t know anything about the place, except the name sounded cool. I thought it might be the site of ancient volcanoes, and that was something I would have really liked to see, since I had missed the ones back in Arizona. It was about a half hour’s drive to the offramp, and I stopped at the Piute Indian truck stop when I got there to get some gas and get a snack. I played my only slot machine while there, spending all of seventy cents for two plays. Now I was expecting the one armed bandits when I got to Vegas, the ones like in the Twilight Zone episode, or every movie I have ever seen about the area. The ones where you put a coin in and pull the arm down. If you’re lucky a bunch of coins comes rattling into the hopper at the bottom of the machine. Nope. Now they’re digital instead of mechanical. You put in bills or credit/debit cards, get a readout, and push a button. Not at all as exciting as actually putting a coin in and pulling the arm. And you get a ticket printout of your winnings. How boring. And for some reason I would trust the mechanical version more than the on the fly electronic one. Anyway, I had fed my very tiny gambling addiction (really nonexistent) and it was time to see the sights.

Just before the Valley of Fire.

The Valley of Fire.

It was a fifteen mile drive to the park, and after about eight miles of almost flat desert the mountains along the way were spectacular. I don’t think I saw any boring rock formations on this trip, and again, every one was as individual as a fingerprint. And then the Valley of Fire was in front of me, large groups of red rocks sticking out of the earth. Again, spectacular rock formations, almost every one of them red. A good percentage of these rocks were iron ore, and had rusted over the ages, then were thrust up through plate tectonics. At the entrance of the park were some spectacular formations, and I spent some time walking around to get a view of the petrified logs. Further in were even more spectacular formations. In one direction was a valley that reminded me of someplace in the alps, rolling valley going up to highlands. At the guest center, near the center of the park, was a road that went up into the mountains, with some white rocks intermingled with the red. There were signs pointing to the Beehives, and I had seen a sign about African Killer Bees in the park, so wasn’t sure I wanted to go there. Turns out they were rock formations that reminded one of beehives.

The Beehives.

I drove back to Las Vegas, wondering what I was going to see next to kill some time. There was Red Rock Canyon, which I had seen on my GPS the other day. I punched it into the GPS and I was off. On the way back I noticed lots of places in the desert glittering in the sun. It was pieces of glass from shattered beer bottles, and I realized that people in this place partied in the desert and trashed their party spots just like many people back east. Sad. I got back into Las Vegas and found that the direct path to the canyon was closed down, the highway under construction, which forced me back into the center of the city, back to the strip. I got to the park at 4 PM, wondering if it would be closing soon.

One of the few formations of red rocks in Red Rock Canyon.

There were a bunch of cars waiting at the payment booths. I paid and started into the canyon, intending to stop at the visitor center and use the bathroom. I missed the turn and was on a one way road into the canyon, my bladder about to burst. Another thing about the desert. There are no convenient trees to go behind, and in this place all of the rocks were mountains, and people could see you from miles away. So I held on until I reached one of the bathrooms, which were really just permanent versions of portolets. The canyon, which was really more of a valley, looked about a mile wide from the entrance. It was hilly, with the road winding up and down the rolling landscape, large rocky mountains around the sides. I swore I had seen some of those formations before, in texts or pictures. It took about an hour to drive around the valley that had appeared only a mile across. I looked it up on Google Maps later, and found that it was large enough to drop Tallahassee in.

Spectacular formation in Red Rock Canyon.

Afterwards, I had time to kill. I washed the car so it would be clean when I turned it in, then went to get something to eat in a place where I could sit for a couple of hours. Then to the airport to catch my flight, three and a half hours early. When I turned in the car I asked if they wanted my half case of bottled water. They said yes, and I pulled the water from the trunk, then noticed all the bottled water sitting there on the side of the return lane. I guess a lot of people have read the caution about carrying water in the desert, and most don’t finish all that they bought. I rode the bus from the car return to the airport, and most everyone was talking about all the money they lost at the casinos. I felt good about only wasting seventy cents. Through TSA, always fun, then a three hour wait for the flight to leave. There were slot machines behind the waiting area, and I thought they must be trying to make sure people didn’t get away with any money in their pockets.

The flight was crowded, capacity, and uneventful. We came into Atlanta at sunup, and it was another more than two hour wait for the flight to Tally. I met the FSU Softball team and their coaches while waiting. While I was flying in from Nevada on the redeye, they were taking the overnight from California where they had played in a tournament.

So, what did I learn? That you really have to see things with your own eyes to get perspective. That the clear air of the desert and altitude made everything look much closer than it was, and there were few places to hide there. That you could get dehydrated at thirty degrees. I could just imagine what it is like in the heat. And I found the setting I would use in my future post-apocalyptic series. It was a great trip, an eye opener, and a treat for the soul. I have vowed to return, this time going into North Nevada, over into Utah, and down to see the Grand Canyon from the north face. Not sure if I would want to live there (though the thought has crossed my mind), but I could become a frequent visitor.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 12 is finally here for the US, and here for the UK. I know I have been promising, over and over. I have been asked over and over. I kept meaning to finish. I started this book while on the Sail to Success cruise, along with book four of Machine War. I thought I would start on both, then decide on which one to do first when I got home. I decided on book 12 of the Empires at War series, and had planned to have it done by the end of January or beginning of February. And here it is, almost through with April, and I finally finished. So, what happened?

Well, I have the book contract with Arc Manor, and the publisher hired one of the best editors in science fiction to work with me. Seriously, one of the best, which goes to show how important the publisher thinks that project is. Also, I went on a trip out west to meet about the project, traveled to see possible settings for a post-apocalyptic series. Then there was the alternate history series I want to do. And Exodus is getting hard to keep fresh. One of the problems with a long series that I didn’t realize when I started it. I had planned on twenty books when I first started. Now it’s looking like fifteen, with five or six in the Machine War spinoff. And then maybe another series in the future, either going back in time to look at the beginning of the Empire through a series of stand alones, or into the future and a new threat. Or maybe both. Twelve is a complicated book, involving a lot of story lines, and it was difficult to keep everything together, especially when other ideas were crowding into my mind. Anyway, enough of the excuses. The book is here, I hope everyone enjoys it, and now it’s time to get to work on the next one.

So here’s the plan, for now. I will start in on Machine War 4, estimated time of release in mid-June. Then I want to tackle the next book in Refuge, which has at least two books to go to reach a logical finish. Then on to books 13 and 5 of Empires at War and Machine Wars respectively, followed by book two of Theocacy, which will finish the year for releases. I have one or two short stories to put out for anthology invites, and of course I will need to work on the new traditionally published military science fiction/space opera series. I got a very nice deal on this series, which the publisher is hoping will turn into something big, with other authors contributing on an invitation basis. Oh, and I need to finish up the fantasy that caught the interest of another editor and a big time agent. So I guess my work is cut out for me, and I need to work a lot harder than I have been. But first, let’s enjoy the new book. Here’s an excerpt:

Samantha Ogden Lee was a cousin in the Imperial line, not in a direct path of succession. Several dozen people would have to die for her to ascend the throne, and that was not her wish or desire. Everyone knew that all of the close line had the gift to various degrees. Sean was said to have it to an extent unseen in generations. She had it as well, not to his level, but powerful enough, though she was careful to keep her ability hidden. She knew that many people thought the prophetic dreams were the visitation of demons, the more superstitious of them, and those would treat her as someone possessed.

There was nothing supernatural about the gift, at least not according to the scientists who had studied it through the ages. They still didn’t really understand it, only that the source came from the still spooky environs of quantum physics. All she knew about it was that she wished she didn’t have even a smidgeon of it.

She felt the dread within her sleep as her dream changed, taking on the familiar aspect. The unreal of the dream state took on a clarity that seemed all too real. A scene of people standing on the roof of a building. Around it stretched a city that showed the destruction of the strike the Cacas had visited upon it. She could tell it was Capitulum. And from the damage she could tell it was either in the recent past or the near future. From the scaffolding surrounding some of the buildings, and the work robots restoring the surfaces of damaged buildings that hadn’t fallen in the attack, she guessed the near future. Very near, in fact, since there was still so much work to be done.

Then her attention was captured by the people on the rooftop, which she recognized as the landing platform of the office building the Fleet was using as their headquarters for the time being, until the massive damage to the Hexagon could be repaired. Most of the people were in uniform, though there were civilians intermixed with the spacers, and everyone had their attention turned to the sky.

Samantha’s dream self looked up with them, to the bright disk of the G class primary that Jewel orbited. At first, she couldn’t tell what was going on. It took almost a minute to determine what was causing their attention to focus on the star. The disk of the star had visibly shrunk as she watched. It was a slow process, until she remembered how large it actually was, and how distant. Then the magnitude of the problem became apparent.

“It’s getting brighter,” yelled out one of the bystanders. It did seem to be, and that could only mean one thing. The star was compressing inward, and that was increasing the rate of fusion in the center. If it kept up?

The heavens flared, blindingly bright, and everyone cried out as they tried to cover their eyes, too late. All were permanently blinded, except for Samantha, who was not really there. Their burned-out eyes could eventually be restored, but they would not be given that time. Clothing and skin smoked, then flared into vapor. The entire city followed suit, buildings made of materials that should not have been flammable burning away in seconds.

Samantha’s view shifted out, to see the seas boiling, the exposed rocks left behind by the ashed forests glowing, then flowing.

Her view shifted further out, until she was looking down on the world, and the far disks of New Terra and Ariel, both glowing from the brilliant reflected light of the exploding star. Moments later the shock wave hit, and all three worlds flared even brighter, then turned into exploding fragments of rocks, some the size of continents. Those huge structures came apart in seconds, until the three worlds were gone, their glowing particles propelled outward from the explosion.

What the hell happened? thought Samantha. She knew what had happened. The star, a G class that couldn’t possibly supernova, had just done so. She just didn’t know why it had happened. An instant later she was sitting up in bed, sweat falling off her face, soaking her bedclothes, her breath coming in gasps.

The enormity of the dream struck her, some of the images fading away, others etched within her mind. The star had gone supernova, against all the laws of physics. A moment later the legends were assaulting her mind. How the ancients had messed with the time stream, and had brought disaster to living systems.

Sean needs to know about this, she thought. Someone was going to do something in the Empire that would lead to a disaster that would dwarf anything the Cacas had done. And Sean needed to know. At that moment she wished again that she was the regent, a position no longer needed now that Jennifer was functioning fully as the empress. But with the loss of the position, she had also lost her access to top levels of Imperial secrets. She had been happy to be relieved of those duties, and had hoped that she might take up a position in Fleet intelligence. Now she wished she still had her access so she could see what might be going on.

“Get me the Emperor,” she said to the apartment com system. “Utmost urgency.”

She waited impatiently as the com system queried the Imperial government net for a minute. It normally didn’t take that long, and she wondered if Sean was engaged in private business, maybe with the empress. He would be pissed, because if he was in range of the com net, her code words would get her through to him. Well, he could go ahead and be pissed. This was too damned important. Whatever was going to happen might not occur for weeks to months, or it might happen this day. She had a feeling it was going to be a lot sooner than a week.

“The Emperor is not available at this time,” said the voice of the com system.

“Shit.”

“I did not understand that reference,” replied the literal system.

“Get the Empress. Utmost urgency.”

“What is it, Sam?” answered the voice of Jennifer, her voice heavy with sleep, almost sounding drugged.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Jennifer. But I had a dream. One of the kind that haunts our family.”

“I didn’t know you got those, too.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Or maybe fortunately in this case. Something really bad is going to happen, and soon. I need to talk to Sean.”

“Sean is out at the Donut, Sam. Something to do with hitting the Cacas before they hit us.”

“You mean before their next attack comes at us,” said the confused Samantha. The Cacas were already in the middle of an offensive against the Empire, one that was not going all their own way.

“No. The attack they pulled on us several months ago. The one that almost killed my child.”

By the Gods, no, screamed the thoughts in Samantha’s head. “He must not do that. Don’t you see. That’s what triggers the supernovas.”

“What supernovas?”

“We need to get through to Sean. Right now. If we wait it will be too late.”

On Saturday I woke up in Kingman, Arizona and packed up. Outside was a minor mountain that still had some amazing rock layers in it. What we see as rock today, for the most part, was laid down as sediment in some ancient sea, possibly for over a billion years. The layers are differentiated depending on what was the dominant variety of sediment. They compressed into rock over time, then were thrust up when the continental plates pushed together, and are often at angles. And there it was, right in front of me. I went searching for a breakfast spot and found another local restaurant that served a fantastic morning feast. Then it was on the road to the Hoover Dam and Nevada. The view from the road was again spectacular, and I kept wishing for more pullovers. Finally, I pulled over on the shoulder a couple of places and took pictures. I went over one hill and lost my breath. There, in front of me, were formations that looked just like the Grand Canyon. I realized later that it was, since the canyon continues past the dam that is built within it. There was a great pullover before getting to the dam, and I got a great view of not only the local mountains, but off in the distance the snow covered peaks of the Sierra Nevadas in California.

View on road from Kingman to Hoover Dam.

Back view of Hoover Dam.

The drive to the dam was a winding road, passing a huge transformer station, and then I was at the dam. It didn’t seem to be as big as it is portrayed in the movies. Later it was explained to me that because of the scale of the canyon it is built in, it seems to shrink a bit. Drove over the dam, stopped and got some shots, then drove back over it so I could go over the high bridge that was highway 93, on the way to Vegas.

Prison at Jean.

I love playing Fallout, and got the idea for a post-apocalyptic series set in the desert from playing New Vegas. And here ahead of me was the homeland of that game, Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert. Coming into Vegas I could see the large tower that dominated the game. Of course Vegas was much larger than in the video game, but that tower made me feel like I was in it. Soon I was on Interstate 15 heading for California, and most of the iconic locations of the game. First, I stopped at Jean, which has its own large casino resort in real life. I took pictures of the prison, in the game, hoping they wouldn’t think I was taking too much interest in it.

Pioneer Salon in Goodsprings.

Iconic Nuka Cola.

The road to Goodsprings runs from Jean and under the interstate. Mojave Desert to both sides, mostly scrub with some scattered Joshua Trees. The town itself was similar to the game, though you couldn’t see the Las Vegas tower from there. The Pioneer Saloon and connected restaurant were just about empty, and it was a little early for lunch, so I headed out to Sandy Valley. Like most of the valleys in the deserts I had seen so far it was a flat plate surrounded by mountains. I drove up the road that I was sure was the same one the giant wasps had attacked me on. Sandy Valley was nothing to write home about, some houses, some trailers, some industrial parks, and a lot of flat sand valley, from which I am sure the name comes. I headed back to Goodsprings for lunch, and now the place was hopping. Motorcycles, antique cars, lots of people. I came into the restaurant after the lunch rush, and there was a shotgun wedding going on in the courtyard in the back. I met Johnny Utah, a transplant who had come to check the town out because of the game and stayed. They had a bottle of Nuka Cola on display, but none for sale, and they were out of Brahma burgers. Something about the radiation levels being too low to support the big bovines. They did have Sunset Sarsaparilla though, and I had a couple of mugs with my lunch. Johnny gave me some tips on places to visit, and off I went.

I stopped at Primm, which indeed had the roller coaster around the much bigger Buffalo Bill’s Casino. Primm was much larger than in the game, and actually had a monorail that ran through the town to move people from casinos to outlet stores and back. Primm was right across the border from California, so off I went into another state, adding it to my list of visited places in America. To both sides stretched the Mojave, stark and desolate, though definitely not lifeless. In places there were large groups of Joshua trees, and backdropping everything were the mountains.

Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert.

World War 1 Memorial in the Mojave Natural Preserve.

I got off the interstate at the Nipton off-ramp, and I could see the tiny village ten miles ahead across the desert. As always, I was amazed at how far I could see. Clear air and the lack of trees made it impossible to hide. I drove down to Nipton, which has a bed and breakfast and a small general store. I was tempted to get a room and spend the night. It would have been cool to sit outside my room and look into the desert at night. It was still early, only 2 PM local time, so I passed on that idea. I continued down the interstate into Cali, pulling off at a gas station that was at the edge of the Mojave National Preserve. Note to travelers. Don’t always believe what the locals tell you. The woman at the station told me there was nothing down that road. I went down it anyway, and into one of the largest Joshua tree forests in the desert. I walked a bit through the Mojave, not far, just enough to get an impression of the place. I heard some bird calls (I guess) at times, but saw nothing moving. It was cold, so I think most of the reptilians were dormant, while the mammals were waiting for night. I noted this was desert you could hide in, since the Joshua trees were, if not growing as thickly together as trees in a temperate forest, still in thick enough clumps that thirty or forty yards in would provide considerable cover.

It was still only 4:30, but I was getting tired, and thought a nap might be a good idea, so I head up to Vegas. I had to drive around a bit, since my GPS wasn’t cooperating with finding a hotel. Finally stopped at a Hilton Garden Inn, and paid three times what I had for my room in Kingman. But, then again, I didn’t have to worry about vermin coming out of the walls in this hotel. After a nap I found a place to eat, then headed down to the strip. I had no intention of doing anything there, I just wanted to see the place. It was the tackiness of Disney World magnified a thousand times. Everything was lit with flashing neon, even McDonalds and CVS. There were people everywhere, walking the streets or taking the tram (another monorail type thing. Not sure how far it ran, but I saw it in several places). There was a fake pyramid with a very bad fake Sphinx in front. A building that looked like a fake New York City skyline. A fake Eifel Tower. I’m sure everyone had seen the pictures, many have probably been there. But being there to see it beat the hell out of pictures. I went the length of the strip, then doubled back to see it again, before heading back to my hotel to sleep the sleep of the dead. I had seen the Hoover Dam and the lower Grand Canyon, visited a lot of the iconic places in the game, had experienced another desert, and had thoroughly enjoyed the day. Tomorrow was my last day in the West. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I was sure me and my GPS could find something.

I just got back from out west, where I had a meeting with publisher Shahid Mahmud and his assistant, Lezli Robyn. I met Shahid two years ago on the Sail to Success cruise he sponsors. I went on the cruise again this year, and on the last day of the program Shahid asked me if I would be interested in doing something with his company. In the words of Kevin J Anderson, who has mentored me in the past, “I can do that.”

It was interesting how we ended up in Arizona, since I’m from Florida and Shahid is from Maryland. This was supposed to be a collaboration with another successful independent author who has also had a lot of short stories published in major science fiction magazines. Shahid sent me the money for tickets and a hotel, while he bought tickets for himself and his assistant. I wanted to do a little traveling in the region after the meeting, so I bought a flight in to Tucson, then out from Las Vegas. At the last minute the other author dropped out of the project, so I still had a trip to Arizona. We had three days of meetings in a local Denny’s, while I spent the mornings looking around the area and taking pictures (855 on the entire trip. Aren’t digital cameras wonderful).

I brought the signed contract with me and gave it to Shahid before the first meeting. This was to cover the legal aspects of what we would be discussing. I have twelve months to produce the first book, which will be edited along the way, then six months after that delivery to give him the second book. It will be a unique space opera/military science fiction universe I had already started to develop. After I am finished and Arc Manor has promoted it, other authors will be invited to write in it. I may be able to swing a couple of people, but it’s up to Arc Manor to decide who will write in it. I may do some more books, and I have been asked to do at least one short story well before the publication of the first novel to help generate some buzz. I don’t want to go into any more detail. Nothing about the financial arrangements, which are between myself and the publisher. I think I am getting a very good deal, and one which could boost my exposure considerably, helping me in my independent publishing endeavors as well. The funny thing was I told Shahid at first that I didn’t need an advance, since I put my own books out without one. He insisted that I take one, with the advice that you never turn down money. Have to remember that.

I will be producing an outline on the first book as well as a series arc before the end of the month. Arc Manor will handle the cover, editing, and promotion, including a website, though I will be putting up content on that site, including sketches of ships, maps, and so on. I am really excited about this opportunity, which, though just one of many coming up, could turn out to be a really big deal for myself and Arc Manor. For those who don’t know, they publish Galaxy’s Edge, a mag edited by Mike Resnick; a series of books pairing new and established authors; short stories by Larry Niven, and reprints by many famous authors including Robert Heinlein. This is my first traditional publishing deal, and I hope the first of many. Don’t worry, I will still be putting out books in my several independent series. After all, it takes time for traditionally published books to come out, and indie novel still bring in money within a couple of months. More news on this deal to come, though Arc Manor will wait until it is near ready to come out for their release. Blogs to follow on the rest of the trip, and some observations that will appear in future books.